Global Domination

Tuesday, February 13

Use It Or Lose It

At my previous employer's, we had a system of holiday rollovers. This system was in place for a number of years before some canny HR person pointed out that it was a bloody stupid idea. As a result, the geekier members of the team, myself included, with perhaps less imagination concerning time off, managed to accrue many tens of spare days. In the last 3 years of my last job, I was able to take tons of time off and still have tons to spare. The more time I took off, the more holiday days I seemed to have left when I returned. I took an entire month in Edinburgh, during which time I gained another two days' holiday.

I eventually managed to run my time off down to 0, just in time to leave the place.

At this place, I started with a lower number of holiday days than I was used to. I used to have 25 per year. I started with 23. It will rise each year of service until 25 (I believe). Last year I used 20 and got to roll over 3. However, I can't just take 27 days this year. I have to take 3 of them before March 31st, or they disappear. I don't know how flexible that disappearance is (i.e. whether I can negotiate it) but let's imagine that I've set out to toe the line and not try to be a special case. It means that I have to get shot of these days in the next 6 weeks or so.

So far this year, I had a day off to move house. A day off. And I did it too. I remember when I bought my first house, I took weeks off. This time I was quicker - a day and that was that. In that day I managed to fill rubble sacks and get moved in, and even get my heating system condemned. I've also planned a half-day off for late March, when I shall go up to Scotland for a weekend. It's a bit of a con of a half-day off, since I'll spend it traveling, but that's the way these things go sometimes.

So, I have a day and a half to fill, lest I lose it.

What could I do in a day and half? My ex suggested I take a long weekend, maybe take a trip to Paris. Nice thinking. I'll just take myself, alone, to one of the world's most romantic cities. Maybe not.

So, any suggestions?

I suppose there's always the chance of a DIY emergency requiring me to labour intensively sometime in March for some reason.